History of Feminism
In reply to the discussion: NYC mayor wants hospitals to lock up baby formula to encourage breast-feeding [View all]pnwmom
(110,245 posts)and the purpose is to help mothers who WANT to breastfeed, not force mothers who don't want to, to nurse.
When a new mother is trying to learn to breastfeed, supplementing with formula can keep her milk supply from growing. It can also cause something called "nipple confusion" in a baby; because the milk flows more freely from the bottle, some babies then reject the breast in favor of the bottle.
In the past, nurses in hospitals sometimes offered bottles because it made their life easier, because those babies tended to sleep more and gain weight faster. Many mothers, when offered a bottle by an authority figure, would take them, not understanding that this might interfere with the breastfeeding they were trying to learn. So this New York State regulation was long ago put into place to support women who wanted to breastfeed. A nurse will no longer be able to give formula to a breastfeeding baby unless a doctor says the baby needs it.